Visit of Ö.M.V. at 22 Anniversary of the Croatian Navy in September 2013
A delegation of the Austrian Marine Association ( Ö.M.V. ) under the leadership of President Skrivanek has visited at the invitation of the Croatian Navy, the celebrations of the 22 anniversary of its founding on 14 and 15 September 2013.
To this end, a flotilla of six ships of the Navy has gone from their base in Split / Lora to the port of Pula, on the tip of Istria, to present themselves at the population and join her to celebrate the foundation . The ships took formation around the historic Molo Elizabeth, resulting in a truly ideal maritime fairground.

The celebrations began on Saturday with a service at the Navy Church, which was built by the Austro- Hungarian Navy. This was followed by a concert of the orchestra at the fairground at which the population of the city participated in large numbers. On both Saturday and Sunday afternoons , the warships could be visited, which found lively encouragement . Two missile speedboats of the Helsinki class (300 t), which were bought second-hand in 2008 from Finland, as an offensive element, a landing ship and minelayer of the Cetina class ( 880 tons , built in Split 1993) , a mine hunter of Korcula class ( built in Croatia in 2006 , 2013 equipped with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for mine detection ), as well as a training ship of Polish origin ( 1500 tonnes ) and a supply ship of the Coast Guard (1600 t, built in Belgrade 1976) were open for the visits.

The ships made a very clean and neat impression and their crews , with which the Austrian delegation was able to have interesting conversations , looked very tight and professional. Details of the ships present can be seen from the accompanying pictures. For the renewal and extension of the current ship park totaling 34 ships a tender was issued in the spring of 2013 for five new patrol boats about 42 meters long.
Sunday was dedicated to the visit of Croatian President Dr. Ivo Josipovic . The President, in the presence of also the Ö.M.V. Delegation, laid a wreath at the war memorial of the town cemetery . Then, a ceremonial presentation of the ships before the President was followed by a lunch in the Navy Casino (built a hundred years ago by the former Imperial and Royal Navy ) .

There were also the foreign military attachees and the Ö.M.V. Delegation invited. In addition to being welcomed by the President, there were also contacts with the Croatian admirals, who stated that the Austro- Hungarian Navy, with its many thousands of Croatian sailors forms a basis for the official tradition of the Croatian Navy.

After these interesting days in the former Austro -Hungarian main navy base Pula, the Ö.M.V. Delegation returned very satisfied and with the sound feeling of having something done for the European maritime commonality with the new EU-country Croatia, back to Austria .

Vice - President Dr. H. F. BRUN